Whitman College - Waiilatpu Yearbook (Walla Walla, WA)

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a six-acre campus constituted the plant of NVhitman Collegeg during his administration fours magnificent brick buildings have been added, and we now have a beautiful campus of twenty-seven acres. He found VVhitman penniless and in debtg now she has an endowment of nearly a quarter of a million dollars. In the fall of 1894 he went East to try to fund at a lower rate of interest the 312,500 debt of the college for back pay of teachers. Un the way he stopped to see Dr. D. K. Pearsons, of Chicago, who had just made his initial offer of 350,000 endowment, provided a like amount could be raised elsewhere. The doctor told President Penrose that he did not have a good business propositiong that nobody would lend him the money on no security. Then VVhitman's Grand Old Man proceeded to do a very characteristic thing in a very characteristic way. He said: I'll give you the money myself on your own signature. So with no security but his name, President Penrose achieved his first great financial victory. But this was not the end of this dramatic incident in Wlhitman history. The year following fI8Q6i President Penrose went East to be married to Mary Deming Shipman, daughter of Judge Shipman, of Hartford, Connecticut. Three weeks before her marriage day Miss Shipman received the following letter from Dr. Pearsons. The note was enclosed: , Chicago, May 29, 1896. Miss Shipman: This note should be kept as a memento. lt was given to me for the purpose of paying the mortgage and back pay of the teachers of VVhitman College. This debt is now paid, and you can present it to the college when you choose, and I think it should be placed in a glass case and kept forever. It was a bold move on the part of President Penrose to sign a note of 312,500 when not one cent was in sight to pay it. The note represents the actual poverty of the college when Penrose assumed control. I give the note to you as a wedding present, and also as a sample of the faith and courage of your future husband. Truly, . D. K. PEARSONS. But this was not all. The S700 interest already paid he returned as a present to the expense fund of the college. The story of how President Penrose woke up the people of Wlalla Wlalla to what Vllhitman might becomeg how they rallied to his financial aidg and how the requiredifund was raised is familiar to us all. In two years more NVhitman Memo- rial Building and Billings Hall arose on the old Baker pasture. 17 l. l

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V af , Upon finishing college he returned to his native state and taught for a year in Hill's School, a select boys' preparatory institution, located at Pottsdam, when he was called to the faculty of VVilliams, his alma mater, teaching there one year. But all this time the ministry appealed to him more and more forcibly as a life work. His father hoped that Stephen would follow him in the legal profession, but it is probable that here again his grandmothers influence was shown, for dur- ing his senior year at Williains he decided to enter the ministry. In 1897 he entered Princeton Theological Seminary, changing at the end of the year to Yale Seminary, Where he was graduated in 1890 with the degree B. D. He was one of the six members. of his class to form the famous Yale Missionary. Band, who offered themselves to the Home Missionary Association to go into any section of the country where they could do the most good. Wfashington was decided upon as having the greatest future, and the six were assigned places in the eastern part of the state. He filled the pas- torate at Dayton with great success for four years, resigning in June, 1894. During that summer he went to Honolulu to fill a temporary vacancy in the Central Union, the principal American church in the Hawaiian Islands. Returning to America in September, he met a call from the trustees of lfVhitman College to take the presidency left vacant by James F. Eaton. The situation was bad enough to discourage anyone blessed with less optimism than President Penrose. The little college which he found here seemed about to die and all the work of its self-sacrificing founders to go for naught. The faculty were dividedg there was no moneyg a mere handful of students was left on the rolls, and only the spirit of a few loyal members of the faculty and a resolute band of faithful friends, headed by Harry Reynolds, kept the institution from suspending. lVhat was needed was a man familiar with the country-a man with ia clear financial brain and able to stand adversity. The new president proved himself the Abraham Lincoln who was to save XVhitman. His charming personality at once made friends everywhere and converted a lukewarmness toward the college into cordiality. As one old friend expressed it: Nl-le did more to shake up the dry bones of this town than any other man we have ever had here. But the results of his work speak louder than tributes to his genius and faithfulness. He found XVhitman College with thirty-four students, to-day there are four hundred on its rollsg when he came in 1894 two small wooden buildings on 16

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Every year his life has become more wrapped up in lvllltlllilll. As reports of the wonderful work he was doing here went East, positions with much higher salaries were offered him. The opportunity to be president of old W'illiams, his alma mater, was put aside because VVhitman needed him more. ' He was made a Doctor of Divinity by Ripon College in IQO2, in recognition of his splendid work in the cause of Chris- tian education. He is also a member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and devotes a large share of his time and thought to missionary work. VVhit1nan College, his lovely family, and his Christianity are the trinity of his affections, each of which he loves with an intense, hearty devotion, of which only such a man as he is capable. He loves to dream of VVhitman as the apex of the educational pyramid in the coming industrial empire of Vtlashington, and often speaks of it as the future Yale of the North- west. , The two characteristics which impress one most in President Penrose are his wonderful capacity for .work, and his approachable, sympathetic disposition. Every homesick prep is called by his first name with a naturalness which endears President Penrose to him forever afterwards. To be under him in the class-room and daily hear his keen analysis of the problems of philosophy is indeed a privilege. To be under the daily influence of his Christian character is an inspiration, the value of which we can hardly estimate. Wie have seen Dr. Penrose receive the President of the United States with charming grace and dignity, and we have seen this same Penrose play baseball at a college picnic with the abandon of a school boy. NVe Juniors, who rarely flinch at any task, feel ourselves utterly incompetent to 'do justice to such a man-we drop our pencil in despair, Respectfully, reverently, we lay down our sincere tribute to our president. All that Xufhitman is, and whatever she may become, is due in large measure to the genius and devotion of Stephen B. L. Penrose. 18 ..i.